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Topic Room "Methods and Perspectives"

In this topic room, ways and means are being explored which can help to foster transformational change towards sustainable development. A special focus is placed on the process of creating future visions. Examples for the presented methods are LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® and the Systematic Living Lab Approach.

Julia Scheerer from the German Bertelsmann Foundation chaired a workshop and presented interim results of her project

Fostering Student Engagement for Business Contribution towards Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.

During 2017, the foundation experimented with three different formats (webinar series, business game, and a “global platform”) to engage business students with the idea of corporate social responsibility and the contribution companies can make towards achieving the SDGs. Using the IOOI-method (input, output, outcome, and impact), Julia involved the workshop participants and asked them what kind of events she should plan to involve and attract students.

The Swiss Student Sustainability Challenge (SSSC) is an initiative by the University of Applied Sciences and Arts North-western Switzerland and the Mercator Suisse Foundation. It aims to encourage students’ ideas and initiatives contributing to the fulfillment of the sustainable development goals and foster their long-term success. Marina explained how SSSC adopts key success factors of business incubators like networking and mentoring through coaches as well as the design of a yearly competition to reach this goal. Above that, the SSSC goes beyond the profit-orientation of other programs by additionally supporting initiatives evolving from other motivation than creating profitable business. For this purpose a sustainable investment plan has been developed, focusing on the measuring of impact.

UNESCO’s Global Goals for Sustainable Development (SDGs) refer to the world society as a whole. They concern all nations and their collaboration on fostering sustainability world-wide. Thus, relations between internationalization and sustainable development have to be further specified and investigated from a scientific as well as a practical viewpoint. Highlighting an interdisciplinary research project that is dedicated to consider internationalization as a valuable resource within Higher Education Institutions, linkages between sustainability and multilingualism are outlined. This project was conducted at the University of Hamburg’s Center for a Sustainable University (KNU).

Photo: Lilian Trechsel

After a short introduction, this workshop offered an open talking circle for participants and the following questions are posed:

Do we share a similar understanding of sustainability, Nachhaltigkeit, βιωσιμότητα, etc. when talking about global goals?

Which different interpretations and associations can be found in analyzing the notion of sustainability from a multilingual perspective?

How might interdisciplinary research on the conjunction between multilingualism and sustainability contribute to social innovation processes towards achieving the SDGs in general?

Introducing a work in progress “language map of sustainability” and interactively discussing the questions mentioned above, the workshop aimed at a) reflecting the notion of sustainability and its connotations seen from different languages and cultures and b) generating new ideas for innovative interdisciplinary research topics within the field of sustainable development. The participants were able to share their personal position and their specialist expertise to approach a joint perspective on global sustainability.

The push to internationalize has led to an increase in university-level educational travel programs (ETPs). These programs, however, have generally been outside of the recent sustainability initiatives in academia. We had two lecturers presenting their approaches to and views on students’ journeys abroad within university lectures: Brack W. Hale, Ph.D. from Franklin University Switzerland explained his poster

Environmental Impacts of Educational Travel Programs: A Case Study in the Westfjords, Iceland

Brack’s research examines potential impacts from ETPs visiting the Westfjords of Iceland and compares them with those from general tourists – with the result that University-led educational travels have greater potential for environmental impacts than regular tourists.

Photo: KNU/Westholm

The travel journeys organized by Bijan Ghaffari and Dr. Gunnar Liedtke (Institute for Movement Science, Department of Sports Medicine, Universität Hamburg) have another focus: They ask whether “Friluftsliv”, a “free-air-life” concept well-known and practiced in Norway, is a chance to re-adjust human values (watch the movie [in German] about their tour in 2016). In his presentation

Renaturalization of Human Values: Teaching Sustainability Motivation in the Wilderness

Gunnar gave some ideas of these values such as “mindfulness (pausing the conventional views; nothing-to-do approach)”, “self-reflection”, “solitude & community”, or “changing the perspective”.

The enthusiastic discussion was mainly about the dilemma of “more diversity through internationalization” versus “environmental impact by ETPs” and whether it would be more sustainable to conduct similar studies next to the universities’ sites.

Slot 5b – Designing the Future through real strategy games

PresentationStrategyGameFuture@MUAS - Designing the future of Munich through real strategy games

Dr. Sascha Zinn, Munich University of Applied Sciences

Dr. Sascha Zinn from Munich University of Applied Science in his presentation

PlanPlayFuture@MUAS (StrategyGameFuture)

gave insights into an educational project at his university incorporating the universities’ 3rd mission by conducting a lessons in which the students could Identify and experience procedures of negotiation about the goals of Sustainable Development in normative and political differences and about the challenges of cooperative problem solving.